My new variety of lily plant originated as a seedling which first flowered in 't Zand, Netherlands, in 1989, The breeding efforts has as their objective the production of an Asiatic hybrid with large, unspotted or inconspicuously spotted red flowers, with flowers in upright position and with tall stems suited to forcing into flower out of season, such combination heretofore unknown in the lily breeding art.
I substantially achieved the desired objective by crossing Asiatic seedlings and cultivars selected for their intense red coloration with spots or with inconspicuous spotting, or known to be carrying the recessive gene for spotlessness, and also displaying tall stems suited to forcing for year-round use as cutflowers.
The flowers of my new lily are characterized by large size and broad-tepalled "bowl-shaped" form, unusually thick substance, and deep and intense red coloration with small, inconspicuous papillae confined to the basal third of each tepal, in an area parallel to the nectary furrows, extending about 1 cm from the apex of the nectary furrows and about 0.5 cm on each side of the basal tepal midrib. As the flower ages, the anthocyanin pigments in the area surrounding the papillae fade, revealing the golden to golden-orange carotene pigments in the underlying cell layers. This creates a golden "blaze" or blush on the basal third of each tepal. It possesses unusually strong, tall stems. In addition, the clone possesses to a high degree desirable characteristics of hybrid vigor. It forces rapidly and reliably year-round under greenhouse cultivation; in late winter to early spring in western Oregon, it typically flowers in 75 to 85 days from adequately precooled bulbs. The clone is a good grower and propagator, as observed at 't Zand, Netherlands, and at Salem, Oreg.
My new variety of lily plant has been asexually reproduced by me and under my direction at 't Zand, Netherlands, and at Salem, Oreg. Successive generations produced by natural propagation from bulblets, by bulb scale propagation, and by tissue culturing from bulb scale explants have demonstrated that the novel and distinctive characteristics of my new variety are fixed and hold true under asexual propagation from generation to generation.